LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second.

LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies as members; its corporate hiring solutions are used by 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.

With statistics as impressive as those, can your company afford not to be utilizing LinkedIn in its marketing strategy?

I’ll admit, LinkedIn is not a service that I check several times a day like I do other social media sites. But after sitting in on our latest Virtual Partner Velocity broadcast, which fellow Channels blogger Alex Krasne hosted and moderated, I think I’ll be changing my social media tune.

She gave key pointers on simple things you can do today to spruce up your LinkedIn profile and how to correctly use the features the powerful platform has to offer. Then, Heather answered questions that our audience tweeted in during the broadcast.

Couldn’t tune in to the broadcast? The video replay is available now.
The replay is available on the Partner Velocity site. Look for Heather Margolis in the list of events and click “View replay” to access the On Demand broadcast.After you watch the replay, complete the event survey on the Partner Velocity site to be entered into a sweepstakes to win a social media assessment and consulting from Channel Maven Consulting (US $1800 value).

After Heather presented, we took questions the audience submitted. Keep reading to check out the useful advice Heather had. Read More »

On Tuesday October 18, we held a live TweetChat with best-selling author and presentation guru Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design. (She created the presentation you see in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.)

During the hour-long chat, Nancy shared a truckload of sage presentation advice, tips on how to spread ideas, tell stories, and ensure the next time you present, your audience will be truly riveted. Thanks to everyone who participated in the chat and congrats to Cisco partner @CapNetSols who won a signed copy of Nancy’s book Resonate.

If you’d like to watch Nancy’s Virtual Partner Velocity video covering this topic and how to truly resonate with audiences, the replay is here. (And be sure to take the survey after you watch Nancy’s video to get your copy of her most recent book “Resonate” and for your chance to win an iPad 2.)

And now, for a full summary of the TweetChat. (You can also visit our TweetChat room to view the transcript.)

To help facilitate discussion, the @PartnerVelocity Twitter handle asked Nancy 10 prepared questions. There were plenty of great audience questions as well, so for easier reading, those are posted after the Q&A along with Nancy’s Golden Nuggets and tips.

In honor of Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs’ memory, the Cisco Channels team wanted to share our Top 21 iPhone apps. But with more than 500,000 apps available in the iTunes App Store, how does one even begin to narrow the list down to 21?

Well, we decided to focus on free iPhone apps that we use all the time. The perfect pairing – free and useful! And for the new iPhone converts who traded in their old devices for the new iPhone 4S, this list would be a great starting point for building your own library of useful iPhone apps.

As Andrew learned the hard way, doing your research before you make an investment pays off, whether you’re buying a car or equipment for your network.

In this episode of Partner Update, we explore total cost of ownership and why it’s the only true way to measure network costs. We also cover storytelling tips and methods learned from esteemed author and presentation expert Nancy Duarte (she created the presentation you see in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth), our October 18 TweetChat with Nancy, our October 20 broadcast covering LinkedIn for B2B, virtualization technology news, Cisco’s own Edison Peres’ travels to speak with partners in South America, LEAP centers to help partners test out data centers, tips for solution providers, and much more. Whew!

Tune in for the latest partner news:

Keep reading for a text summary and list of links mentioned during Partner Update. Read More »

Cutting costs is always a priority. And if your customers need to purchase new products, they likely will want to find the best deal. Did you know that one of the best ways they can do that is by purchasing Cisco Certified Refurbished Equipment?

Pre-owned equipment is Cisco hardware that has been fully refurbished to Cisco factory specifications. It’s backed by the same warranty, and has the same maintenance and support options as new Cisco products. And…Cisco Certified Refurbished Equipment can be had at discounts of as much as 30% off new product prices!

But did you know that less than 5% of Cisco channel partners currently take advantage of the availability pre-owned equipment for their customers? I got the chance to chat with Maryann Von Seggern–senior director, pre-owned equipment, Cisco Capital–and she filled me in on why partners should consider Cisco Certified Refurbished Equipment for their customers’ networks, how the equipment is certified, and the financing available to partners for Certified Refurbished Equipment.

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